Troubleshooting macOS High Sierra Problems

Are you having difficulties with macOS High Sierra? While most Mac users who update to macOS High Sierra have no issues with the system software, there are small groups of users who have experienced a variety of problems with the software update. This tends to happen with every major system software release, either due to compatibility issues, third party apps, bugs, or a variety of other reasons. This article attempts to gather a list of some of the reported macOS High Sierra problems, along with possible troubleshooting solutions to those issues, though by no means is this exhaustive.

There are mixed reports of some Mac users updating to macOS High Sierra and then experiencing a range of problems, from problems installing or downloading the installer, to rapid battery life draining, inability for some apps to open, apps crashing, strange performance problems or overall performance degradation, problems with mounting and reading disks, problems with networking connectivity and wi-fi, issues with graphics or displays, amongst a variety of other issues that can be frustrating. Dive in, and report your own experiences in the comments below.

MacOS High Sierra download fails

Some users report errors trying to download macOS High Sierra from the Mac App Store. If this happens, the first thing you should do is be sure your Mac is connected to the internet and has a functioning internet connection.

Often simply relaunching the App Store is sufficient to remedy a download problem as well.

Quit out of the Mac App Store

Relaunch the Mac App Store and try to download macOS High Sierra again

Rarely, you may need to reboot the Mac as well – this should not be necessary however.

MacOS High Sierra Installer is Incomplete or Unable to Make a USB Drive

Some users report they are unable to download the complete macOS High Sierra installer app, and instead wind up with a small 20mb version that attempts to download the remainder of the installer during the installation itself. This prevents the user from creating a USB installer for MacOS High Sierra.

MacOS High Sierra Installation Fails

If installation fails, usually in a very obvious manner with an error message when attempting to install the High Sierra update, the solution is usually to redownload the installer and then reinstall macOS High Sierra.

There are various error messages that may be seen in this including: “The path /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg appears to be missing or damaged. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.” or, rarely, more obscure error messages with “macOS could not be installed on your computer” or “An error occurred while verifying firmware. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.”

If you get package missing errors or damaged application errors, delete the “Install macOS High Sierra.app” from the /Applications/ folder on the Mac, then re-download the installer from the Mac App Store.

Reboot the Mac, then attempt to re-install Mac OS High Sierra using the “Install macOS High Sierra.app” app again. This should resolve most issues with failed installation attempts.

MacOS High Sierra cannot be installed, or refuses to install on a Mac

If macOS High Sierra will not proceed with installation on the Mac, usually with a notification along the lines of “macOS High Sierra cannot be installed”, it is likely because the Mac is not compatible with High Sierra.

“Installation of macOS could not continue” error

Some Mac users are encountering an installation error stating “Installation of macOS could not continue. Installation requires downloading important content. That content can’t be downloaded at this time. Try again later.”

Troubleshooting this issue usually involves multiple easy steps: confirming the Mac has active reliable internet access, and then trying to install macOS High Sierra again.

Very rarely, a macOS High Sierra installation fails and remains stuck on a black screen, or all white screen.

If you see an all black or all white screen, the first thing you should do is wait, since the issue may resolve itself, even if it takes a few hours.

Also, with an all black screen, be sure your screen brightness is turned up on the Mac. There are a few reports of the installer screen dimming for whatever reason, and simply turning up the brightness on the display reveals the normal installer screen.

If the installation has completely frozen on a blank screen, you may need to reinstall macOS High Sierra. Try rebooting the Mac and running the High Sierra installer again, or if you have a macOS High Sierra USB boot installer drive, run the installer from there.

If the installation is truly frozen, you may need to reinstall macOS High Sierra via Recovery Mode, by rebooting the Mac and holding down Command+R and then choosing to reinstall macOS.

High Sierra Installation Failed Completely, Mac OS Won’t Boot

This is rare, but there are some reports the installation of High Sierra fails. If the installation fails and the Mac operating system won’t boot at all, usually getting stuck on a blank gray screen, you may need to reinstall system software on the Mac. But first you should try resetting NVRAM / PRAM on the Mac.

Turn off the Mac, then turn it back on again and immediately hold down the OPTION, COMMAND, P, R keys concurrently

Continue holding COMMAND OPTION P R until you hear the boot sound chime again, it usually takes 15 long seconds or so

If the Mac will not boot up after resetting NVRAM, you likely need to reinstall the system software. You may be able to do this with a High Sierra boot drive if you have one available, otherwise you can use recovery mode to reinstall. You can boot into Recovery Mode by rebooting the Mac and holding down Command + R, then choose to reinstall macOS.

If you are unable to reinstall macOS High Sierra, and the Mac will not boot up normally, you can also reboot the Mac and hold down Command+Shift+Option+R and choose to reinstall macOS over internet recovery, which will reinstall the version of Mac OS that shipped on the Mac instead.

APFS Not Working With Fusion Drives or Normal HDDs

APFS support is not currently implemented for Fusion drives or HDD drives in macOS High Sierra versions, but Fusion and HDD support for APFS is expected to arrive in a future software update version.

If you are currently running macOS High Sierra with a Fusion drive of standard spinning HDD, be sure to update system software when new versions arrive to receive support for APFS when it arrives.

MacOS High Sierra Freezing or Stalls

There are mixed reports of Macs freezing, stalling, or otherwise not responding after installing macOS High Sierra.

Some users report that their cursor and keyboard becomes unresponsive with High Sierra, but music or audio will continue to play. This is often triggered after a video starts playing on the Mac, through YouTube, Facebook, or similar services. In such a scenario, the Mac must be forcefully rebooted to regain functionality of the keyboard and mouse or trackpad again. A workaround to that frustrating issue may be to user an alternative web browser, whether it’s Safari, Safari Tech Preview, Chrome, Firefox, or Opera.

There are other reports of Macs completely freezing up with a stuck cursor or a stuck beachball cursor that does not respond or move as well, also requiring a forced reboot of the Mac to regain functionality. These problems could be the result of a bug or compatibility problem with macOS High Sierra, either in core system software or with a third party app or service in use on the Macs. Updating apps and installing available software updates may remedy the problem. If this situation remains unresolved to the user and becomes unworkable, downgrading macOS High Sierra using a prior Time Machine backup is one workaround, though it will move the user back to a prior version of system software to do so.

External Displays Not Working with MacOS High Sierra, or Screens Flickering

There are a few reports of some Macs having issues with external displays after updating to macOS High Sierra. Some users repot screens are flickering or blinking various colors at random, or after a Mac has gone into clamshell mode with an external display connected.

If you are experiencing issues with external displays not functioning properly, try resetting the Mac SMC.

Be sure to update any updates to macOS High Sierra that are available, as well as any third party graphics drivers if applicable.

Display Artifacts or Screen Graphics Distortions

Some Mac users have reported issues with unusual display artifacts and graphical distortions on their screens. This could be related to issues with the new graphics engine in macOS High Sierra and certain hardware components, or it could be related to third party software or drivers installed on the Mac. Graphics issues that relate to the core system software are likely to be resolved in a future software update, whereas graphics issues dependent on third party software or drivers will likely require an update from those manufacturers and/or developers.

Mac Won’t Wake from Sleep with High Sierra

Numerous users on discussions.apple.com report difficulty with a Mac waking from sleep since installing High Sierra.

The typical troubleshooting steps of resetting SMC or VRAM could be a solution to issues with sleep and wake. Apparently Apple Support has told some users in this scenario to simply reinstall macOS via Recovery mode.

One workaround is to restart or shut down the Mac and then boot up again every time the Mac refuses to wake from sleep, but that’s obviously fairly annoying.

MacOS High Sierra 10.13 Wi-Fi Problems

Some users have reported that macOS High Sierra has difficulty connecting to wi-fi networks. Usually this is a simple matter to resolve, often just toggling the service off, restarting, and turning wireless back on again is enough to fix it:

Additionally, there are mixed reports of difficulties connecting to wi-fi networks that are hiding their router name (SSID). If you connect a Mac to a wi-fi router with hidden SSID then a temporary workaround is to unhide the SSID (router name) and make the SSID visible again. This requires logging into the wi-fi router and that process varies per wireless router vendor.

Some apps are not working in macOS High Sierra

Most apps that worked with Sierra should work with High Sierra, but nonetheless some compatibility issues can persist with High Sierra. Examples of apps reported to have problems with macOS High Sierra include some versions of Final Cut Pro, Motion, Indesign, Logic, Compressor, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, amongst others. In almost every case, installing the latest version of those apps, along with any other available software updates to macOS, should resolve the problems.

The best approach to this is to update the apps, from the Mac App Store Updates tab, or if the app offers direct software updates, then to install those.

Check with the app developer to see if a new version of the app is available, and to make sure it is compatible with macOS High Sierra.

iMessages not syncing properly with MacOS High Sierra

Some users are noticing that iMessages are not syncing properly after updating to macOS High Sierra. Sometimes iMessages may arrive late, or be out of sync with an iPhone, or various other issues.

If you have difficulty with iMessage, disabling and re-enabling Messages within the “Accounts” section of Messages preferences can sometimes remedy the problem. Some users have success logging out and back in again as well.

Updating to the latest version of macOS High Sierra is recommended when possible.

The Mac feels slow after installing MacOS High Sierra

If you just installed macOS High Sierra on a Mac and it feels slower than usual, it’s likely because of indexing and other maintenance tasks going on in the background pertaining to Spotlight, Siri, Photos app, iCloud, and other system functions.

Simply leaving the Mac turned on and letting it sit idle as it processes necessary background tasks is usually enough to resolve performance problems experienced right after updating macOS system software.

In fact, many Macs may feel faster with macOS High Sierra, particularly with disk related tasks like copying and moving files, due to the new APFS file system. Again, if you have performance issues, simply waiting a while can often resolve the problem.

If performance problems persist, investigating apps or processes using high CPU usage through Activity Monitor is a good starting point. Sometimes an errant process may be running in the background and slowing things down by consuming computing resources.

Additional Troubleshooting Tips for macOS High Sierra

Install all available updates to macOS system software and to any problematic third party apps via the App Store or through the developers

Create a new user account on the Mac, reboot, and login to that new user account – does the problem exist on that user account too? If so, there may be an issue with the original user account and not the system software

Installation of High Sierra froze halfway thru the process, and when Apple support talked me through re-installing, the new install came with a glitch in the software. No Messages were syncing with the iPhone. Three calls later, and a complete reinstallation of High Sierra has not solved the problem of messages received on my iPhone not showing in iMessages.

The only issue I have with Mac OS 10.13 is that
after updating to High Sierra I can’t access the internet either through a hard wire or Wi-Fi without restarting/rebooting time after time. After the computer goes to sleep is when the trouble exists.

The initial installation wiped out more than 150 recorded shows from my EyeTV and even the schedule was erased too. I installed the first update and it did the same thing again but I only had a few recordings to loose but I still had to go through adding shows to my schedule again! I am really PO’d that I lost many shows that won’t be rerun shown again so they are gone for good!

Horrendous problems with Mail since upgrade to High Sierra, mail cannot be sent servers even the cloud server for Mac mail do not respond, exchange accounts (not MS) do not work.
This seems t o happen after every upgrade I wish I had an alternative to Mail.

Apple Care talked me through an emergency High Sierra install when the sound stopped working on my 2011 MacBook Pro 13″ Retina Display across all apps. I was told the problem was the old operating system. Right away there were problems with Safari generally and when those were resolved, the Netflix playback was severely downgraded, evidently as a result of the OS upgrade. There has been some improvement with resetting Netflix playback settings (they went to default settings), but I am still not back to the high resolution full-screen (13″ is already small) display we had before upgrade, no matter what browser I use. Netflix tried to tell me the problem was my basic digital plan, but that was not a problem until the day the music died and we did the OS upgrade.

Also had issues with the new HS IOS. Contacted support and 2hrs of unusually inept help. Last word was clean instal.
Refused to do that and after some research, it was suggested to remove any Non Apple 3rd party apps.
After a couple of days and boot ups all the niggling faults seemed to iron out.
Lesson for me, patience and do not trust impatient suggestions to make radical decisions, even from Apple.

“While most Mac users who update to macOS High Sierra have no issues with the system software, there are small groups of users who have experienced a variety of problems with the software update.” Do you even google, mate? Judging by the forum posts, the _majority_ of users has pretty much the same issues:
1) metal 2 performance with iGPUs;
2) video file verification taking ages;
3) APFS issues with local snapshots and that kind of stuff overall;
4) Photos face autodetection taking huge amount of CPU time (while being not disableable).

Googling only reveals the users with problems. It’s a terrible way to find out how the general user is doing. It’s like going to a hospital and deciding that everyone is sick based on the fact that everyone there is.

It has been terrible, everything starts so much slower and it is very unstable. My Mac has never crashed and restarted before, until now. Graphics glitches, it’s just an awful release. I’m going back to Sierra.

With MacBook 12, screen wakes up from sleep with fuzzy colors. It takes only a second or a fraction of it but annoying. Part from that mission Control got faster than Sierra to be honest. Also i have issues related to external time machine disk. Somehow the disk Unmounts due to power shortage to operate even though I use Apple’s original adapter for the power. As there is only one port, I have to use the only USB port provided on the adapter. I solved this by connecting the power cable is the external disk to a power bank. there are also issues with disk utility. Spent the whole afternoon for repairing the disk disk Utility tried to convert ntfs to hfs+ for the time machine disk but failed and I tried several OSes Linux, windows and another Mac to solve it. But it’s really buggy.

NordVPN using IKEV2 slowed to a crawl (220Mbps down to 65 – 100Mbps). Server list screwed up.
Machine takes in excess of 30 seconds to even boot to Apple logo.
(2017 iMac with 500GB SSD, 40 GB of RAM) Apple say that is normal…I thought SSDs were instant on, my old I5 iMac with spinner booted quicker.
In Safari going to Amazon website takes over a minute and then it thinks about every click.
Google auto correct is now a Royal PITA.
just does not feel responsive…wasted $2600,
not happy!!!!!!

I get the same. It does seem like it’s not seeing/finding the start up disk — but nothing I do seems to address the issue. Now, if I boot off USB and run 10.12.4 (or up to 12.5?) — it boots as it should… anything after that, 18 seconds until the screen lights up. If the machine “sleeps” for more than 26 seconds — it “freezes” (and then crashes with a kernel panic after about 40 seconds).

Learn the lesson I did a few years ago, after the quality of Jobs left Apple… don’t install the system updates.

Always wait. Do not jump to install the big software updates if you want your Mac, iPhone or iPad to perform well. At the very least you need to wait for the 10.13.2 or 10.13.3 updates that come months later, when the real bug fixes arrive.

How many times do we the fool consumer need to learn this lesson before we listen to our own experience?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Just think about the risk/return ratio with the software updates. The risk is your computer will be unusable and turn into a huge hassle of many hours to fix. The return is… what? You tell me.

Honestly, who has time for this stuff? I got work to do. My weekends are for fun geek projects, not fixing what some bad software update broke.

You know what’s funny about Apple (…among a lot of things…) is that each time they came out with an OS upgrade, the length of troubleshooting tips of why this or that doesn’t work grows in size. Look at this article. Scroll through it. Better yet, just do a File > Print and observe in the print preview the number of pages. Without the comments it would be 7 pages or troubleshooting tips!!! For a newly released OS! WHOA!

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the helpful advice and the tips. But a company to release an OS upgrade that could have so many issues that the troubleshooting tips could easily be 7 printed pages… honestly, I don’t know what the heck you guys bother.

I’m curious how long does it take for an average (and below average) human mind to understand that this is what Apple has become. A failure. Stop upgrading the system and send Apple a message. When over 50% of users (…just a number I threw out there…) would refuse installing new OS upgrades, Apple might start thinking about changing their practices.

I only had two issues with High Sierra on my 2010 MacBook Pro, both were, easily, correctible.

1) Installation went fine. However, it got stuck during the first boot-up. The progress bar got up to, around, 90%, then, just hung there. I let it sit for over an hour, and there was no movement. I booted into Recovery Drive and ran Disk Utility First Aid on my drive. No problems found. Rebooted. Booted up fine. Don’t know why it was getting stuck on the initial boot, but subsequent boot-ups have gone fine.

2) My fans have been spiking up to high speed for no, apparent, reason (no excessive activity that would cause such a thing). An SMC reset corrected this.

When I installed High Sierra it completely wiped out all of my files on my hard drive or at least made them unreachable. This was so disruptive to my work that I reverted back to Sierra from a cloned copy of my hard drive. I have no idea what I could have done to avoid this problem which I assume was due to the new default file system that Apple is now using. If anyone has a suggestion regarding this problem, I would love to hear it.

My process has always been to install a new OS build on a separate partition, and once it becomes stable and usable migrate to it permanently. Thank God I did this for High Sierra. What a total pos OS. I suspect, like Yosemite, Apple will not bother to correct all the issues but simply release a new build and pretend this OS never existed.

What is even more laughable is the quiet and non app store release of itunes 12.6.3.6, which the app store sees as an UPDATE to 12.7 despite it not being available from the app store. (You can dl it from the official apple links in the OSXDaily article.)

Another case of Apple totally screwing up, but refusing to take blame while silently releasing a fix.

I hate to admit it but I agree, I think MacOS High Sierra is awful and frankly I will avoid it for as long as possible or maybe entirely if they never fix it by 10.13.4 or 10.13.5 sometime next summer near when the “new” next version macOS is unveiled at WWDC 2018.

Remember the old adage because it certainly applies to these core software upgrades: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Had an interesting problem when I put High Sierra on my new MacBook Pro. Everything I tried to download said the file was corrupted. After 8 hours on the phone Apple determined it was a bug in the permissions, and gave me a temp fix in terminal, so far it is working.

Having the same problem as Larry. No email attachments work (Damaged/Trash), can’t down load anything or upload anything from my computer (Damaged/Trash). I tried the “Security & Privacy” move but the 3rd option to “allow downloads from anywhere” doesn’t exist on mine and I tried the “terminal” move but it won’t accept my password.

Well, i read with attention all the messages uper…totaly agreed with “TED” & “VTDecoderXP”….

First of all, hope you will undertand the sens of my words, English is not my native language…

What i noticed on those reply’s & on all other messages of some forums & on the Apple Forum, is the ton of the users words….in 1/2 years this attitude are completly change to grow up hardly in all the sens of the word terms…Mac Users are now tired and are under than angry…and they are right to be ! with the Price we pay the Macs, IDevices & services, we can wait from APPLE to delivred a decent System Update, but unfortunetly NOT !

Apple don’t have enough Money ? Apple Don’t have enough Dev/tech/Ingenior’s who working with & for Apple ? For Launch in all the Planet a BETA MAJOR SYSTEM UPDATE who are full of BUG’S !! ?? Those Computers Expert’s don’t test the system before launching that type of update all over the world ?
Apple maybe think behind the keyboards and Screen are only 8 years old Kids ? ( No Offense kids , is just for the ex;) Apple don’t think to all the Company’s, Doctors, Lawyer’s, Administration, Photographer, and all the designer, singer’s…Movie scriptwriter etc…etc… ! ? without them machine they are lost ! Even, you will say; PRO’s don’t update a Mac who working well, ….But all the PRO are not reading the Mac Forum each day & are maybe not aware about, they just TRUST on APPLE, like we do ….

How a Company like APPLE can advice on his official webSite the BEST OPERATING SYSTEM IN THE WORLD, when they very well know to launching this BETA all over the world will be like a bomb, because the effect very well before them launch, the oposite is not possible with the quantity of Dev’s who are working on….

What the deal here ? forced users to buy again, new Mac’s ? Let Users desesperated with them bricked Machine for finaly proposed them to downgrade if by luck they make a backup….even for some of Them Time Machine Backup do not work because HFS+/AFS corruption…

Like “TED” say uper, until we reach more than 50% of ppl do not update, maybe Apple will begin to ask him self the good questions…& Launch a Working Opérating system…

Finaly it is clearly the WORST Upgrade Ever….

Personaly i for sure not upgrades my Mac’s and stay on El Capitan ( who are not free of Bug, but i can work…)

Only way to get out of this troubles with Apple updates and all the Apple restriction ( like Itunes etc…), is to boycott Apple ( and it is a Huge MAC FAN TALKING )…stop to update, stop to buy, time to Apple to realized ; Mac Customers who pay 3 X the price are not BETA TESTER !

Denis1, OS 10.0 was an unmitigated disaster, it couldn’t even talk to a printer. It took our Mac club over a year to sort out enough to make the Macs do something useful.
It took (if I remember right) until 10.1.3 before OS 10 worked well enough.
This upgrade (10.13.1) is an unmitigated disaster. That after13 versions of OS 10 Apple is unable to put out an update, mind you, an update, not a new OS version, that won’t download from the Apple Store (another disaster) and won’t install when downloaded from the Apple Support site speaks to the incompetent imbeciles at all levels who are now running Apple.
Tim Cook and the incompetent cretin Craig Federighi need to be tarred, feathered and put on a rail out of town.

My only problem with High Sierra is that it does not allow me to play videos from an external dive that are over 1GB without a tedious process of “verifying” which can take several minutes. Is there a fix for this ?

There is a bug in Time Maching; it is apparently hard coded to look for only HFS+ Journaled disk drives. If you update your backup drive to APFS you cannot use the Dick with Time Maching. The backup sets are there but not accessible. The workaround is to copy the backups to another HFS drive and use it.

There is a bug in Time Machine; it is apparently hard coded to look for only HFS+ Journaled disk drives. If you update your backup drive to APFS you cannot use the disk with Time Machine. The backup sets are there but not accessible. The workaround is to copy the backups to another HFS drive and use it.

High Sierra is great, but a nosebleed!
The upgrade was flawless on the 2012 Mac mini, but impossible on the MacBook Air 2010. After a week of trying, I ran a Mac cleaner which I never used, and solved the problem, freed up ram and even cleaned my airport wifi, which I had problems with during the upgrade week. I did have to reinstall CS4 on the MacBook Air, and over 100 albums on iTunes they saw, but could not find. The only problem is my I home bluetooth keyboard noes not work on the Mac mini but flawlessly on the MBA. The videoplayback is incredible picture wise, even on first row sports.
I jumped from mountain lion to Sierra to High Sierra on both macs.
Personally, if I did not use an iPad to draw and “pages” to inventory my work on 3 computers via iCloud, I would stick with mountain lion.
I hope this message encourages or helps!

I had to re-download or re-install all of them from a backup or the web. Happily library files were untouched and all licences were intact. It’s been a number of hours of struggle to get everything back in place. All seems working fine at the moment.

As à lot of users i am not happy with Apple and all the evolution of revolution they are doing, taking the 3,5 connector from the iPhone away removing all the USB ports from the new Mac’s, but I don’t complain, I moved to a other phone, one with the stuff I need, I also gone back to windows or linux and with USB ports and sd card reader, and so on, and you know what? Do windows is better now, linux also a very good system, stop being blind and go other way, it’s the only thing Apple understands,

Pretty severe problems on multiple machines which seem to be related to APFS.

1. Some disk operations EXTREMELY slow. To encrypt/decrypt a 500GB SSD with FileVault usually takes less than 40 min but with APFS it takes well over 4 hours. About 1/10 the speed.

2. Can’t add new users to FileVault encrypted disks. Usually, a user is added and they are then added to the list of users authorized to unlock the disk in FileVault preferences. The problem is the enabled users never show up at the login screen. On one machine, the problem was solved by clearing the PRAM for some odd reason. On another machine, the user had to be explicitly added a second time via the fdesetup command in the terminal.

3. Today tried to transfer a user account from one Mac to another. Both running High Sierra and encrypted with FileVault. Took almost 5 minutes just to mount APFS of Mac in target disk mode with a direct connection via Thunderbolt. Opened the Migration Assistant, selected the user account, and started. Gave up after about 20 minutes while the machine was checking things like compatibility of apps and security. It never actually reached the beginning of the data copy operation. The user only had about 1.4GB of data, which before High Sierra would have taken about 2 minutes. This might be related to point 1 above.

4 Mac household.
I always do my rMBP first. Late 2012 Zero issues. AT ALL.
My son’s rig is next. Late 2012 21.5 iMac. Completely borked. Nothing but beachballs. Didn’t bother to do the other 2 until I get my boy’s iMac sorted.
Restored via TM to the last 10.12 back up. Where it will stay.
Apple has lost its way…I see myself as a brand loyalist, and ambassador. I am sad.

Same problem with fonts. Some applications say that “times” is not available, but the Fontbook app says that it is both system and user libraries. One of the apps eventually freezes since that font is used in it’s toolbar.

I have version 10.13.1 Beta (17B42a).
Ever since installing High Sierra, randomly, pictures on sites and Images on Google will appear completely black. On Google under Images, sometimes thumbnails will be visible and turn black when I click them or simply be viewed black as a thumbnail and remain so when clicked. I have not found anyone else with this issue online nor a fix for it. I have reported it through the Beta Feedback Assistant. Please HELP ME!

For thos complain and request help to go out of those issue with H.Sierra….well, guys are you not aware about this MAJOR update ? you didn’t read about AFS on the Net before you push the red button ? Are you not aware since 2/3 years with all the Updates Problem’s with Apple IOS and OS system…. ??

The only one can Help you is Apple, but Apple never go back and reverse this system Update to a Classic sierra who permited you to find back your working system….1/ you downgrade if you have a backup or restore your full machine, but in this last case i doubt it will be easy to do ( in case you have H.Sierra on the mac already ), but possible…

Now, once ppl begin to completly STOP to install on them machines the BETA MAJOR update Apple Launch, maybe at this time, Apple gona think 2 times before sending a “Bomb” in all the world…..

Well, this last version of OS is by the way the worse ever !, that remind me Windows Vista in the 90’…..

Upgraded from Sierra to High-Sierra, upon seeing a webpage about file vulnerability to hacking.
Immediately the scanner (HP Scanjet2400) stopped responding.
The system knows it is there (System Report re USB connections, where full scanner ID and serial number appear) but neither HP Easyscan, nor Vuescan can find any scanners.
HP sites have no driver updates after OS X 8!!
Anybody have any ideas or suggestions?

MOV video files transferred to main computers running Sierra suddenly no longer work since software update on my iPhone 7 OS 11.0.3 a few days ago
There is no way to convert these back to a usable mov on my main computer. They run well on the iPhone
I have found the cause – a setting in Camera – camera capture, where you can choose High Efficiency or Most compatible.
The update has High Efficiency chosen by default = Apple speak for Stops Working! Leaving one user with a days worth of professional video shoot unusable!!
I am loathe to update to High Sierra in case all my video work is ruined. Any solutions please?

1. I was just using Safari, on one particular page, the mouse would get stuck, only way is to manually reboot it. After rebooting it opened Safari autiomatically. I was browsing the other pages, worked fine, the moment I clcked the tab where it got atuck, again same thing happened. I Quit out of Safari on the next boot up.

2. With Blackmagic software, after some time, the capture button doesn’t create a response. It just virtually shows I’m clicking it, but it just doesn’t do anything, no response.

I have recently updated from Yosmite to High Sierra, now my macbook air is unable to start up and can only work in safe mode. I do not have a back up on Time Machine and all my documents are still in my laptop and I can’t back them up either.

My mac freezes on a black screen with a apple logo and a full progress bar

hi Michelle
I was have same exact problem and it’s very frustrating …
from my experience you need to do a clean install but before you do that you must backup your important files via cloud storage like drop box, google drive or etc

One major problem I have is High Sierra took all my thousands of font families (which were organized into folders for easy access) and dumped them into one folder making my organization useless. Luckily I have a backup.

Regardless of which printer I am using the Quick preview option checked (normally showing a clear image of what will print) is still clear for a split second, but then immediately blurred by thick black artifacts.
Unchecking it just switches things to “no image”.

Did not see that mentioned.

PS: Checked for updated rivers from Lexmark and Brother, but nothing yet (If that is the issue)

Chronic problems with the entire computer freezing especially when left idle. There seem to be lots of other people with this same problem. I tried installing the public beta as well as numerous other suggested fixes. The problem remains for me as it does for dozens if not hundreds of other users.

I’ve spent many hours with AppleCare techs over the last couple weeks, all aimed at helping me upgrade to High Sierra. First, I had to find some space (at least 8G) on my older MacPro. The techs were great, helpful and patient. I finally managed to decrease the storage and followed the instructions of the Genius Bar tech to install MacOS High Sierra. I immediately started seeing my laptop screen look like it was having seizures and lots of shaking/quivering i could not control. Tried rebooting several times. Unfortunately, the tech was unable to see what I was seeing when he did a screen share so directed me to reinstall the upgrade the next day and I would receive a call back. Following this, the shaking/seizures subsided a bit, but when i went to look for an excel spreadsheet i’d been using for nearly 2 years, it was not there. I finally found a version from 12 months prior, but that will necessitate a lot of ‘backfilling’. Needless to say, i am frustrated and now wonder how many other files were lost during the upgrade. Apple tech was unable to offer any help at this point, only apologize. I did do a full back up using Time Machine prior to the upgrade, but still unable to find this file in the back up or iCloud. Again, tech had no explanation. So my caution to you is to hold off on upgrading at this point until bugs are worked out. As the tech said to me “software isn’t perfect; sometimes there are problems”. Duh.

My problem with High Sierra is when I open the Applications folder, or click on or open a file/app within that [Applications] folder. I get the Spinning Beach ball. It lasts for a few seconds then the action I wanted takes place. No other issues since upgrading. If you have a suggestion (other than re-installing 10.3) please let me know

We updated one iMac desktop to High Sierra. Spent the rest of the day trying to get email to work. So far we haven’t been able to solve other password related problems so this iMac is out of service. I’m furious since not only are we loosing business but we can’t afford for this computer to be down. Needless to say we won’t be updating any other desktops or laptops. I’ve been a loyal customer but I’m fed up with Apple. I’m out as they say on Shark Tank.

Try starting in single user mode (command-S) At the root prompt (or when it stops, hit return to get the root prompt), type “exit” followed by return.
This will enter multi-user mode, then start the window manager.
You might need to repeat this at least once to get it to work. As far as I can tell, the issue is that the window manager is crashing in normal boot sequence, but can start when launched after entering multi-user mode from single user mode.

During installation of High Sierra, Bluetooth quit functioning. Had to plug in keypad to USB and find a mouse with USB cord. My iMac is less than a year old, I keep all software up to date. Bluetooth preferences says Bluetooth is not available.

Ive upgraded to OS high Sierra 10.13.1 and now my gmail no longer keeps incoming mail in inbox! After a very short while it all goes to “all”mail! Called Apple, they said is the new way now with the upgrade? I hate it!
How can I fix this? Not very tech savvy, I am of the older generation, pls help if there is an option to return to the previous gmail settings.
Thank you!

My problem is with Flash. Some buttons on some websites (my biggest issue is with Pepperplate, I know, it’s old, but all my recipes are on there!) are no longer clickable, despite making sure flash is enabled etc. Very annoying.

My iMac (2012) is totalled. Tried a few fixes…nothing.
Message on screen (paraphrasingj stated to send in for repair. Sooooooo disappointed.
Im not taking it anywhere. If i cant fix it myself, i will trash it and replace with A PC.

After failing to install, and no luck with Apple Support via chat, I had to take computer to authorized Apple service center. Found out that my hard drive was fried. The tech said I was not alone, and that there were a lot of angry Imac owners. Repairs (replacement of Hard Drive), and recovery of data will cost about $400.

First time I’ve had problems with an OS upgrade for my MacBook Pro. After installing High Sierra 10.13.1, had the “can’t wake from sleep” problem. Tried the resetting sleep parameters (details here somewhere…); still have wakeup issue. Requires Power off/reboot to get a display. A couple of screen freezes. Same action. Couple of apps still haven’t recovered, especially Canon’s MP Navigator, which had an update for 10.12 that doesn’t work for 10.13.

MP Navigator opens OK but no longer displays a options screen when you click on ‘Scan’. That screen had permitted you to choose Draft or Final scan. The Draft option enabled you to choose a variety of color and grey scale outputs whose appearances it showed before taking your Scan decision. Other options were also available. Unless Canon fixes things up the 9000F will be just about useless.

After installing High Sierra, the Look Up function doesn’t work. More precisely, any click/scroll function within Look Up doesn’t work.

I realise they’ve updated to allow Spotlight suggestions in “Look Up”.
But when I try to click the “continue” button within the Look Up box, nothing occurred.
So I disabled the Spotlight suggestions in Look Up option in System Preferences, and the normal Look Up results seemingly returned, the problem is that I can’t click on the “more” button when I use Look Up as dictionary, nor can I scroll to show more results within the Look Up box.
So my conclusion is that I cannot click anything nor scroll within the Look Up box… Why? Does anyone has this issue? If you know how to fix this please let me know. Thank you.

agreed.
I have mine set to “prevent computer from sleeping automatically when screen is off” under power management for the power adaptor setting — but this setting doesn’t seem to be available for the battery. Well, my machine was locking up a few times the other night whenever I got up from the computer and walked into the other room and back — infuriating! I thought I had prevented sleep. You guessed it, I has disconnected the power plug. Yay… plug back in, still can’t get the machine to wake from sleep, but at least I can prevent it FROM going to sleep. No, I won’t caffeinate.

High Sierra is a DOWNGRADE, not an upgrade. My GMAIL CONTACTS no longer sync with my Mac as perfectly well as they used to. Some contacts cannot be accessed on my phone at all; I had to delete them & re-add manually. I rely heavily on my CONTACTS… 1039 of them. When they do update onto my BBRY PRiV, all that syncs is the “EMAIL” and “NOTES.” NO PHONE NUMBERS, NO AVTARS. I want out of this & back to my old OS. PLEASE!! I also wish I had of realized this was a BETA version before I switched. :-(

I finally had to take my iMac to the Genius Bar at an Apple store in another town just to get High Sierra to load AT ALL. Subsequently numerous small problems, like the e-mail links not working with Chrome. So much for connectivity – the “solution” is to select the link, copy it, and paste it into the Chrome browser.

Since installing High Sierra whenever I start it up after shutdown or wake it from sleep mode the screen brightness settings is always brighter than when I shut it down. As I do a lot of photo editing and then printing with an on line photo service, this is very annoying when I need to have the brightness match the resulting prints. Any suggestions? This was never a problem with Yosemite.

No email attachments work (Damaged/Trash), can’t down load anything or upload anything from my computer (Damaged/Trash). I tried the “Security & Privacy” move but the 3rd option to “allow downloads from anywhere” doesn’t exist on mine and I tried the “terminal” move but it won’t accept my password.

when I attempt to create a new user (standard or admin) the command faisl with the error message, Preference Error/There was an error in User & Groups Preferences, and the other annoying error Copy&Paste function does not work.

I ‘ve tried to observe the Console real-time while I execute the user creation command, but nothig seems obvious to me to further help this discussion, sorry.
Any suggestions?

After upgrading to High Sierra on my macbook Retina 13″ audio out of internal speaker is very bad. Anyone has the same problem and has fixed it? I don’t have this problem on my previous Sierra installation until the update.

Sheeesh! Looks like so many problems and very few solutions. I switched to High Sierra (before knowing about many of these) and my big issue is the finder can’t find ANY projects on my hard drive and server (‘0 results’). It’s always been invaluable for any and all searches in the past but this new (ahem) ‘upgrade’ is horrible. Stay away for now — and I hope Apple can resolve many of these awful issues soon!

similar issue – though I do get Finder search results – with file path – on my local drive, when I search from the Finder window on my external drive, it shows results but not the file path (or icons, or are clickable, or anything)

I bought a new 2017 27” 3.5GHz imac 4 days ago, I upgraded to High Sierra to enable data to be brought across from my old Mac, it would’t migrate without both machines using the same OS version. That’s resulted in a grey screen of death. Apple support have been unable to fix it, I spent the best part of an evening on the phone to them and on chat. None of the fixes included in this report worked, and all were tried (without plugging it into a boot drive). They’ve advised me to take it back to the shop. Poor performance for a new product. Pull your socks up Apple.

High Sierra seems unstable. I have the problem with flashing too – very disturbing. Spent hours over a month since I installed it using Chat/Phone with Apple support, and I’ve recently written to Apple.
I use Photos a lot, had a small postcard business, lots of other stuff, and got into making slideshows and moving images Video and putting on YouTube. With High Sierra they’ve changed the copying over of photos to Slideshow so that it’s in random order – this might sound small but it renders it impractical to make a slideshow, particularly as i can use hundreds of photos for the basis of a project. Plus Apple appear to have lost at least 1,000 of my photos! No explanation so far.

I too have lost photos or had their dates changed from 19xx to between 2018 and 3000. Duplicates have appeared with titles omitted. I foolishly reverted to load a backup library into Photos and it too is now corrupted. The library had approx. 2200 images and now has over 5000.

My quicken program keeps picking up an old email that I no longer use, I have cleared the key chains and the plist, but it still pulls the old email. Is there another location that High Sierra is saving information??

high Sierra – there are a lot of problems and too less benefits to update. Macbook Pro 2015 bought, Professional long experiences user, software developer. Black external screens, switch between users shutdown the former user, quicktime does not add a video clip (originally cutted from same source), Bluetooth connect loss, hierarchy of intelligent mailboxes (exists) cannot edited, Icons are lost, Previewer doesn’t show Miniatures if shown on external HDMI Screen, Printer are not available but OK after restart, search in PDF in Previewer dissent work in bigger PDF … and a lot of so small things have worked in earlier versions and now work sometimes and sometimes not. Apple – if i had more time i would write a detailed open Letter.

Apple has so much money and such a lousy community group where is no help and no competence. Where to get people from Apple who really are interested to get known about the users problem. Are we of interest or not. Think and test the software understanding the professional users, the ones who use the OS for their job.

Today i liked simply cut of a part off a video and add the 2nd clip to the 1st one with Quicktime. Sorten yes, but add doesn’t worked. This has worked since all the time i was at Apple. Such a shame.

Apple has so much money and such a lousy community group where is no help and no competence. Where to get people from Apple who really are interested to get known about the users problem. Are we of interest or not. Think and test the software understanding the professional users, the ones who use the OS for their job.

Today i liked simply cut of a part off a video and add the 2nd clip to the 1st one. Shorten yes, but add doesn’t worked. This has worked since all the time i was at Apple. Such a shame.

Contacts are severely damaged. After installing High Sierra, my computer has added about 1,000 records to my list of 3,300 contacts. Many many duplicates. And the new way of Apple find dups does not show which records are duplicated. So I have to go through my entire list and try to figure out what is going on.

Data is missing. Records I have added are missing. Records with company names have defaulted to nonsensical fields. Notes, which I use extensively, are truncated. In short, a gigantic mess which is going to take me hours to resolve. THANKS, Idiot Apple programmers. I am committed to the Apple culture, unfortunately, and just keep hoping that it will get better.

On a side note from this issue, I honestly think there are too many mediocre programmers in the world now, too many people, who have no common sense, making too many changes, without thinking about customer usability. Site after site “updates” their pages and things go from bad to worse. EXAMPLES: IMDB, Netflix (which is now beyond horrible). The one site that I find to be the most user-friendly is Amazon.

I have issues logging into my user profile after restarting. It will show my icon and seem like it is loading but then just get stuck from the restart screen. I’ve tried forcing a power off and powering back up again with no luck. It will get stuck over and over again when i keep forcing a power off/on.

If i shut down and leave for the day to come back home and start up, it will resume normalcy. I am getting extremely annoyed at this update with High Sierra.

After installing the High Sierra, my finder often crashes and will not relaunch causing me to reboot my computer by holding the power button. My keynote also will freeze after using the app for a while and will not ever refresh itself. This has been a headache causing me to constantly have to restart my computer as I’m constantly working in keynote! Help!!!

If you use a MacBook Pro with two graphics cards, simply use System Settings to turn off the automatic switching between the two cards. Et voilá, wake up from sleep works again. Yes, your battery will be empty a bit earlier, but at least, the system runs until then!

If you are a graphics professional and you do not want to loose days of productivity or billable time, do not, do not, let me repeat, do not upgrade to High Sierra. After working with two very nice Apple support senior advisors for a couple of days, their answer was to downgrade. Thank God I had a recent backup. Everything is working again including Creative Cloud 2018 and my Fiery print drivers. So do not upgrade to 10.13.1 or .2, unless you just like talking to the tech folk for hours on end without any resolutions.

Hi Sierra has totally bricked my 2012 mbp.
Starts booting, the white screen of death.
No recovery, no recovery from usb or time machine, not even able to force a re format from single user prompt. It won’t let you change anything. Run out of ideas now, I hate to say it going to have to remove the hdd, format it on another computer & try from there????
All this after about 6 weeks running ok, then an update, then no MacBook
Some friends about to upgrade because it’s been a while, I said ffs DON’T!!!!!
They’ve really screwed up in a big way with this OS. Btw, 99.99% not hardware related after rigorous test I managed to do ??
Apple insisting there is no problem it seems?????

funny i have osx 10,13,1 installed on my mid 09 macbook pro. the one that is no longer supported my apple and supposedly not compatible with 10,12. and its running just fine no problems at all. let it be said apple the ones you won’t let update to 10,13 works better with it then the macs you so allow to update date to it.. my macbook pro is compatible apple just wants me to buy a new mac and that is not happening as my mid 09 macbook pro works just fine.

WOW, after reading a good portion of all the problems people have had with High Sierra’s upgrade, I feel blessed—though it’s very annoying—to just have my problem. I am using the Mac Mini and after I downloaded Mac’s High Sierra, now my first page is OFF THE PAGE. My DOCK only shows half of each icon and I have to go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES > DISPLAY > and “AGAIN” time-after-time, every time I bring it out of sleep or start it up, I have to then reclick SCALED then go back and forth from “1600-900” to “1080P” before it will bring the dock back on the page. It is a CONSTANT irritant; I’ve been to http://getsupport.apple.com and, so far, they haven’t been able to help me. So, the irritant continues to affect my Mac.

PLEASE, if anyone has figured out how to solve this problem (and They’ve already had me try the “new user approach” and the “OPTION > COMMAND > P-R KEYS” but neither of them worked), PLEASE contact me and HELP!! Thanks, RISH, West Salem, Oregon

I had so many issues with the High Sierra update that everything I had going wrong was attributed to High Sierra. I spilt a glass of water, High Sierra. I was late to work because of High Sierra. My car wouldn’t start, High Sierra. There is no peace in the Middle East because of High Sierra. Get the picture. I downgraded back to 10.12.6. Everything is working again including the Creative Suite 2018 upgrade and all my Fiery print drivers. Hopefully Apple sends out a notice, in a couple of years, when all the goofy “beta tested” issues are resolved. They just need to support their operating system again and stop handing development over to their junior engineers and third party programmers.

Had my Mac Pro six core set up with Yosemite. User folder and OS on a standard 1 TB hard drive. Cloned (using CCC) the OS and apps only to a SSD, pointed it to my user folder on the standard drive and it worked for months flawlessly. Fast. Then I upgraded to Sierra on my standard drive, cloned the OS and apps only to a new SSD, then upgraded the SSD to High Sierra. Pointed that to my standard hard drive user folder, and it seemed to work ok, but then new entries in my Contacts app would disappear before my eyes. I had problems with keychains, particularly Safari, which kept asking for a keychain that had a password different from my admin password. I freaked out, erased the SSD, then tried to do just Sierra on it, without the special Apple file system. I thought matching Sierra to Sierra would be OK. Still had similar issues, again Safari keychain problem. Right now, I’m booting on my standard drive with Sierra, and things seem to be OK. Sure miss the speed of my SSD, though. Going to wait until the various geniuses solve the issues.

Hello,
I am having trouble using the Control Key in the terminal, emacs and pico. A combination like Ctrl-a to go to the beginning of the line in the Terminal, C-x C-s in emacs to save a file, etc., are usually (but not always) resulting in just the letter being typed and the Ctrl key being ignored. This has happened since since upgrading from Sierra to High Sierra. System preferences indicate that the ^ key is the Control key. Rebooting has not helped. Any suggestions?

Until now I had not seen any trouble at all with any OSx update.
I updated my 2017 MacBook Pro to HS and my external USB-C monitor (Acer from 2017) started flickering, then switching on and off. After a reboot the screen was ok until I let the Mac go to sleep.
I’ve tried all the tips I could find, resetting the NVRAM did not help at all. Then I updated the DisplayLink which made the USB-C monitor connection stop working (even after uninstall). So I bought a USB-C->HDMI hub and the display worked again. For a few days. Sometimes after sleep the external display is red or blue, sometimes it flickers and sometimes both displays are just grey. I can fix this by rebooting or rebooting and resetting NVRAM and everything will be ok again for a couple of days.
I was going to do a rollback to Sierra with a clean install but the boot menu won’t recognise my startup disk.

On SIERRA and HIGHER –> running approx ONLY 3 times on 10 !!! (Many times nothing appears !!!!)

This drives me totally crazy… You can check yourself, we have many mac computers on my company and this problem is really crazy for us…. (And we dont found the way to solve it , because internally changed by apple…no parameters for this found….)

=> If someone got a tweak to repair this it will be very helpfull…Contact us please.

Bruno
Applexpert19 on mac communities…
(FRANCE / Engineer and using MAC OS since…2007)
(My favorite System is Still SNOW LEOPARD….)

After upgrading to high sierra my card reader won’t work so I have to use an external USB connected device to read cards from my camera. Cards work fine on another computer. They don’t show up in Finder or on the desktop on my mid 2012 MacBook pro. Also, the system is very slow to boot up and has completely frozen several times and just stopped and rebooted on it’s own once. I’m using my Windows laptop more now and that says it all.

Got help from Apple Support re this issue – twice. Very Nice. BUT, problem not fixed. My iMAC late 2012 with Solid State Drive, with High Sierra system froze everytime I tried to use FINDER or SPOTLIGHT, especially it I accessed my two external hard drives (one Western Digital, one Seagate). BTW, both drives work fine with my MacBook Pro.
Spent days going back to Sierra operating system.

Well, I tried to reset the mac and have been trying every possible solution, but Mac OS high sierra can’t be installed and when I press command + L it shows an error: 14701 which I’ve Venn looking for but there is no apparently info about it. I don’t know what to do

I’m ready to go back to a windows computer. This OS has messed up my laptop twice. First time the repair guy wiped my hard drive clean & I started over. All was fine until I did the siera update two weeks ago. This is ridiculous now it won’t even boot up. Apple should reimburse me for repairs and FIX THIS DAMN OS!!!

I was getting upgrade notifications nonstop so I finally hit the button to install high sierra. Turns out my computer is too old to run it. Silly me for assuming that the notification would not show for incompatible computers. Or better yet that a system scan would precede the download as in versions past to verify that upgrade was possible. Now my computer has no OS at all and can’t see its own startup disc. So I can’t install the original OSX. I had been running El Capitan so I tried downloading that while in safe boot but apple store won’t work if your startup disc is lost in the ether and you have no OS. My computer is ruined. I look forward to having one of the Apple “geniuses” try to tell me I should pay for the repair. Completely awful planning and as usual they downplay the severity by trying to claim only a few users had problems.